Being Reborn
by chocolatecheesecakes
Summary: Cho was always the 'odd one out'. Cho/OC.


**Hello again!**

**This is… well, another Transfiguration entry for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I had to write about someone changing into someone else, or running away into the Muggle world.**

**Guess which I chose. This is canon, judging by JK's afterthoughts. I think it's set about a year after that war, as well. **

**Please review! Word Count is 697.**

Being Reborn

It was a cold April morning when Cho Chang walked out into the great big Muggle world, feeling the wind on her face and seeing her hair blow around her, before hearing the sickening thud that was her family closing the door on her.

You could say that it was oddly refreshing, being free of her bonds that had tied her to her staunch traditional Chinese Wizarding family for so many years. Cho still glanced behind her again however, and sighed a little, before kicking her key under one of the Flutterby bushes with her shoe.

Cedric had first given her this idea (Cedric… Cedric… Was she betraying him now?), to leave her protective, smothering family and move in with him, once they were both out of school. However, after the Triwizard Tournament, that hadn't seemed likely in the slightest. Mr and Mrs Diggory were far too busty grieving to help their late son's girlfriend.

After Cedric, had been Harry. Cho had liked Harry a lot, ever since his third year and her fourth, but he only really started to grow into himself in fifth year, and that was when she dated him. For once, she wasn't the screw up in the relationship, it was _him_.

Roger Davies.

That guy who died in the Final Battle at Hogwarts (she couldn't remember him name… It was only two coffees anyway.).

Then Malcom. Cho let herself smile, despite the rain falling from the sky, as she walked along the street. Malcom wasn't the most handsome, the most intelligent, the richest, not even the most amazing boyfriend a girl could wish for. He was studying Food Technology at the local Muggle University, and probably wouldn't ever get a steady income on his entire life because of it.

But… Love is unconditional. And when she had accidentally waved her hand, fixing up his ripped CV perfectly, two dates after they first met, he hadn't swore at her, or yelled, or screamed, or got freaked out. He laughed, asked her if it was possible to learn how to be a wizard, and kissed her, right there in the pouring rain, his fingers burning red hot through her thin jacket.

Her first kiss had been from Cedric, and probably her last would be from Malcom. He had asked her what was wrong, after she broke into tears after he kissed her that night, sat her down on a park bench and held her tight. And when she had told him – _Cedric Cedric Cedric Cedric Cedric Cedric Cedric Cedric _– he hadn't tried to comfort her.

_"I'm not Cedric, my love, and I won't ever be, but I am still here, and I'm sure he is too."_

Cho smiled again. Cedric would like Malcom. Not that Cedric didn't like everyone (he did) but, there was something that would make the two _click_. Like Muggle jigsaw pieces.

Malcom was certainly surprised when he saw his girlfriend turn up at the front door, holding a sodden-through rucksack of the bare essentials in one hand, and a note firmly clasped in the other. But again, he didn't question her when she said that she had been kicked out (because she was seeing a dirty _Muggle_), he called his parents, and said he needed his girlfriend to stay somewhere for a while.

"What's your name dear?" Malcom's mother asked, whilst laying Cho's drenched clothes on the radiator, his father making hot chocolate the old-fashioned way, on the stovetop. "Malcom's mentioned you before of course, but not your name."

Cho swallowed for a moment, before smiling and nodding. She couldn't be Cho Chang anymore. Cho Chang was scattered, some of her at Cedric's grave, some of her in Madam Puddifoot's, some of her at Hogwarts, and the rest left at her parent's house. Cho Chang was dead.

"Cecilia." She chose, thinking of Cedric and nodding silently to him. "Cecilia… Cecilia Smith."

Smith was a common Muggle surname, Cho remembered. And Malcom's mother seemed to accept this, as she gave Cho – no, Celilia – a warm smile and a hug. "I'm sorry." She said simply. "But taking you in, after all; you've done for our son… it's the least we could do."


End file.
